Brando thought that the joke the company played on him today was not a particularly funny one.
A little over ten days ago, he had just completed the task of assassinating a leader of a drug ring at the Kenyan border. It was a clean and perfect assassination.
Brando was going to head back to Italy for a vacation but he received orders from the company just as he was about to leave. He was told to stay in place.
The company claimed that there was going to be a new mission assigned to him and the pay was going to be exceptional.
Left without a choice, Brando rented a room in a local place and waited. More than ten days had passed since.
When the agent finally appeared before Brando with a French passport along with a ticket for a flight to Namibia, Brando became a little upset.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
With his fingers, Brando jabbed at the appointed location written on a paper, his expression clearly discontent. “Walvis Bay, Namibia? Blackwatch Biotechnology? I’m a hitman, I have zero interest in managing a business!”
“Dear Brando, that’s not what this is.”
The agent informed mysteriously, “Don’t worry, you’ll know what you have to do when you get there. I guarantee that you’ll find yourself liking it.”
Unable to resist the temptation of a huge paycheck, Brando eventually boarded the plane headed for Namibia.
Half a day later, when Brando finally walked out of the cramped, almost claustrophobic international airport, he heaved a sigh of relief.
The circumstances of the flight were bearable. Even though Brando had to take an economy class flight, it was nothing compared to the things he had to suffer during the mission. The only thing that slightly bothered him was the proximity of his seat to other strangers.
The seats on the flight were separated by two armrests which were no more than ten centimeters combined. For someone like Brando who did not even dare keep his eyes entirely shut when sleeping, this may as well be torture.
When he walked out of the airport, it was right around midnight. There was a row of vans parked by the side of the road, each with a black-skinned driver hailing for passengers with barely comprehensible English.
“Sir, where are you headed?”
Just as Brando was trying to decide if these vehicles that should have been scrapped ages ago were fit for driving, a black teenager who could not have been older than thirteen approached him.
The young man looked at the gigantic Caucasian man before him who stood a little shy of two meters with wrists thicker than his head was. He asked timidly, “Sir, ten Namibian dollars gets you to the Walvis Bay, are you coming?”
Brando allowed himself to ease his guard when he saw that it was a child. He took out a slip of paper and pointed. “The address says that there’s a company called Blackwatch somewhere around these parts, you know where it is?”
“Oh, you mean the new research center?”
The youngster’s eyes lit up. “Of course, I know. Are you headed there?”
“Yes.” Brando did not inquire about the price but instead, he looked behind the youngster, “Where’s your parent’s car?”
“My parents? They’re in heaven. I drove here myself.”
The youngster seemed unbothered and gave a chuckle. He gestured at a motorized tricycle parked nearby. “Sir, it’ll just be twenty Namibian dollars for me to drive you there.”
“Why not.” Brando was taken aback when he found out about the youngster’s deceased parents but it was not all too surprising.
Stories like this were all too common in Africa. No matter how rich in compassion someone was, they would be numbed by reality eventually, no less when it was a mercenary like Brando who had long been accustomed to death.
Brando stretched his leg out and stepped onto the tricycle. He quickly noted that even though the tricycle was very old and worn-down, the compartment designated for passengers was speckless and without dust.
After starting the engine, the tricycle made a circle at the intersection and drove onto the road.
When they left the vicinity of the airport, there were no streetlights whatsoever on the road. The headlights of the young man’s tricycle had been broken for an uncertain amount of time as well so he had to rely on the stars for direction.
Fortunately, the night sky of Namibia proved to be remarkably bright.
On the way there, as if out of boredom, the young man began humming a tune from his hometown. It was an exotic tune that Brando had never heard of. Just like the lives of these people, there was joy found among the brokenness and freedom found among the hardship. It painted the scenery of the rural outskirts.
Brando recalled back to when he was a child.
It was nearly thirty years ago now, he was somewhere around five years old then. Back then, he used to while his days away, playing on the farm without a care of what went on in the world. At night, when his father had finished the work for the day, he would sit at the back of his father’s bike and look at the starry night sky above him…
In the blink of an eye, his father had been retired into the earth while he had become a hardened mercenary.
“There’s no going back…”
Brando sighed quietly, feeling an emotion he could not pen down swelling within him.
Amid the youngster’s hum, the tricycle drove westward for twenty minutes. Brando could almost see the lights of the city not far away.
However, when they came into an intersection, the youngster suddenly turned and drove toward an unknown path.
“You sure you’re heading the right way?”
As a mercenary who had survived countless battlefields, Brando was born of a cautious nature. When he noted the sudden turn the youngster had made, he quickly touched the bottom of his shoes.
Throughout the years, he had always hidden an ivory dagger at the bottom of his shoe that was able to sneak past the inspect borders.
“Yes sir.”
The young man spoke with candidness like he did not know what was going on. He mouthed amid the wind. “This is a newly paved road funded by the research center. It connects from the main entrance of their research center to the main road of the Walvis Bay on the other end.”
Brando stopped pursuing the matter after that.
They continued following down this path. Before long, countless black and lacquered structures began appearing on both sides of the road. The bottom of these structures consisted of a two-meter-tall pillar with a huge square panel at its top.
All the panels were neatly lined up and stood at the same angle.
Brando could tell without a second glance that these were photovoltaic power generation structures.
These adjacently positioned power generation structures were densely arranged on both sides of the road, nearly covering the sky above.
“Do these belong to the research center too?” Brando asked.
“Of course. This is a very, very wealthy company we’re talking about here!”
The youngster continued with an envious tone. “Apart from setting up solar energy generation and paving roads, they even recruited a bunch of people in the villages nearby for experiments. I heard that every household in that village was given tens of thousands of Namibian dollars!”
As soon as the matter was brought up, the youngster spilled out everything he knew. “I also heard that in the bay around ten kilometers away, there’s a construction site that also belongs to this company. I heard they’re going to build a power plant there!”
Brando nodded. To build a power plant in such a poor country without fear of huge losses, this company was certainly rich…
“Also, word is that the boss of this company was from China.”
The youngster added. “Right, sir. Have you been to China?”
Brando smiled at the question. “No, my profession isn’t exactly welcomed there.”
“That’s such a shame.”
The youngster expressed with sadness. “I heard them say that the Mainland was a land with no disputes, no poverty, no disease. If I had a say in it, I’d like to be born there in my next life.”
“Yeah…”
Brando drew a long sigh and looked up at the stars above. “Who wouldn’t want to live in a peaceful country?”
Without realizing it, Brando suddenly became intrigued by this company called Blackwatch.
A moment later, several buildings with flashing lights suddenly appeared in Brando’s field of vision.
These buildings were not particularly tall but they took up far more surface area than most ordinary buildings. He could faintly see some lights within the buildings. These were the only source of illumination on the road.
“We’re here, sir.”
At last, the tricycle arrived at the end of the road. The young man stopped the vehicle and pointed at a wide iron gate around ten meters away. “This is the Blackwatch Research Center you mentioned just now.”
“Perfect.” Brando took a two-dollar U.S. bill from his purse and handed it over. “Keep the change.”
“Thank you. You’re a very generous mister!”
The youngster lit up immediately and expressed his gratitude to Brando. After that, he turned around and headed back happily.
After the youngster took his leave, Brando did not head up to announce himself immediately. He vigilantly scanned the area and noted the flashing surveillance camera at the gate before approaching. He pressed a doorbell with a sign which read “PLEASE RING BELL”.
After a moment, followed by approaching footsteps, a window at the gate suddenly opened. A black man appeared from the other side and asked, “Who are you looking for?”
“The name’s Clark Brando. Your company invited me here.” Brando presented the address the agent gave him.
“I don’t know any Clark. Company rule states no opening the gate at midnight, come back tomorrow.”
The black man informed not-so-kindly and closed the window before giving Brando time to draft a response. Brando heard receding footsteps after.
A frown appeared on Brando’s face.
He took out his phone and prepared to inquire with the agents, only then did he notice that his phone was left in airplane mode from back when he was on the plane.
Due to his responsibilities with various missions, Brando did not have the usual dependency other people had with their smartphones. Therefore, it did not occur to him to take his phone off airplane mode until now.
Right after Brando had deactivated the airplane mode, several missed calls notification popped out.
The missed calls all came from the same unfamiliar number.
Brando had figured that this was a new number the agent gave him after completing the previous mission so there should not be a problem calling the number.
“Beep… Hello, hi there. Is this Mr. Clark Brando?”
The call was answered at the first ring with an abrupt response coming from the other end. Judging by the voice, the recipient should be around thirty years old. Also, his English pronunciation was not exactly standard, seemingly carrying a Chinese slang.
Brando made the connection with the previous youngster’s remark that Blackwatch was a company in China. He answered, “Yes, that’s me.”
“Phew, thank God!”
The person on the other end seemed to have finally calmed down. “May I know where you are now? I’m your designated driver here to pick you up, I’m outside the airport now.”
“I’m already at the main entrance of your company,” Brando answered.
“… Understood. Please wait for a moment. I’ll come over immediately.”
There was a brief silence before that person spoke. Brando could hear the sound of an engine revving from the phone before the call was ended.